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Private company

i-mate

Logo: i-mate, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

Scottish telecommunications and computer software company

i-mate is a company selling Windows Mobile-powered devices. The Group was launched by James Morrison, who began his telecoms career at sea designing and installing fiber optic cable systems with Cable & Wireless and was head of the team at O2 that designed the first O2 Xda Pocket PC phone and started Microsoft in the mobile software industry. He also selected HTC to be the OEM for the O2 XDA and started them in the mobile handset manufacturing business.2 It ceased to exist in 2009.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

2001Founded1
  • Industrytelecommunications1
  • HeadquartersDubai Internet City1
  • Founded inGlasgow1

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i-mate is a company selling Windows Mobile-powered devices. The Group was launched by James Morrison, who began his telecoms career at sea designing and installing fiber optic cable systems with Cable & Wireless and was head of the team at O2 that designed the first O2 Xda Pocket PC phone and started Microsoft in the mobile software industry. He also selected HTC to be the OEM for the O2 XDA and started them in the mobile handset manufacturing business. He set up i-mate in Glasgow, Scotland in 2001 to deliver into the corporate market place. imate used HTC as their manufacturing partner for 22 handsets, It was based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and operated in the UK, Italy, Armenia, Australia, India, the U.S. and South Africa. Imate went on the London AIM Stock Market in November 2005 with a valuation of $350 million at flotation a climbed to a value of $989 Million in 2006, The company closed most of its business in September 2009.2

Products and brands

  • mobile phone

Listed on Wikidata.1

From the beginning of its existence in 2001 until fall of 2006, imate sold branded versions of Pocket PCs, PPC phones, and smartphones manufactured by Taiwanese HTC. In September 2006, HTC ended this relationship with i-mate (at the same time it cut ties with O2). This was announced soon after HTC started selling devices under its own brand name in Europe and purchased the PPC/smartphone distributor Dopod which serves Asia and Australia. Since the end of its relationship with HTC, i-mate carried devices from other manufacturers, including Inventec and TechFaith.

From Wikipedia’s article on I-mate, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Timeline

  1. 2009Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 2001Founded Founded in Glasgow1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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